Include helpers in comments [feature request]

[lipsumar]

First off: amazing lib, incredibly useful 👏 💯

The only thing we're currently missing is to be able to use helpers in comments.

We're using Plop to make "create" packages. After the generator is done, we want to instruct users what to do next. It typically includes:

• cd into "that directory the generator just created"
• yarn install
• etc...

Currently including a comment with a helper (such as "cd into {{dashCase name}}") will not execute the helper. Can plop also transform comment strings with helpers ?

[amwmedia]

I'm not sure why this would be giving you problems. Plop treats all content in the template files the same, it has no concept of comments vs code. Can you provide an example of a template that doesn't render properly when run through plop?

[lipsumar]

I was probably unclear: what i meant by "comment" is this: https://plopjs.com/documentation/#comments

What we typically do is:

plop.setGenerator('service', {
  actions: [
    {
      base: 'templates/typescript',
      destination: './{{dashCase name}}',
      templateFiles: 'templates/typescript/**/*',
      type: 'addMany',
    },
    'To start your server:',
    '  - cd {{dashCase name}}',
    '  - yarn install',
    '  - yarn start',
    '',
  ],
  prompts: [
    {
      message: 'Package name (will create a new directory)',
      name: 'name',
      type: 'input',
    },
  ],
});

This issue is the string ' - cd {{dashCase name}}', {{dashCase name}} is not replaced.

[amwmedia]

ah, I see... Yes, it would be possible to process this data through handlebars before it's printed to the terminal output. In the meantime, you could try using a Custom Action Function that simply returns the string you'd like to show.

const instructions = (answers) => plop.renderString(`\
To start your server:
  - cd {{dashCase name}}
  - yarn install
  - yarn start
`, answers);

plop.setGenerator('service', {
  actions: [
    {
      base: 'templates/typescript',
      destination: './{{dashCase name}}',
      templateFiles: 'templates/typescript/**/*',
      type: 'addMany',
    },
    instructions
  ],
  prompts: [
    {
      message: 'Package name (will create a new directory)',
      name: 'name',
      type: 'input',
    },
  ],
});

[crutchcorn]

After looking through our PRs, I think this PR actually implements this:

#183

@lipsumar is there any chance that you could test this change and let us know if this solves your problem?